In his most recent essay, Craig Mod explores the effect of optimizing software for speed.

Speed and reliability are often intuited hand-in-hand. Speed can be a good proxy for general engineering quality. If an application slows down on simple tasks, then it can mean the engineers aren’t obsessive detail sticklers. Not always, but it can mean disastrous other issues lurk. I want all my craftspeople to stickle.

My newfound love for Hugo echoes this sentiment. It’s not the friendliest tool, but it’s speed and focus on doing one thing right makes it a joy to use.

That said, Sublime Text has – in my experience – only gotten faster. I love software that does this: Software that unbloats over time. This should be the goal of all software. The longer it’s around, the more elegant it should become. Smooth over like a river stone. I have full trust in the engineering of Sublime Text because I’ve used it for over a decade, but also because it always feels like a fast, focused tool (even though it’s actually very complicated) and has only become faster the longer I’ve used it.

Software that unbloats over time. What a beautiful idea.

Another excerpt that just had to be quoted:

Google Maps used to be a fast, focused tool. It’s now quite bovine. If you push the wrong button, it moos. Clunky, you could say. Overly complex. Unnecessarily layered.